DeBeauvoir Town is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Middlesex, created in 1842 from West Hackney Ecclesiastical Parish; located on Northchurch Terrace.
Alternative names: Beauvoir Town, St Peter, Northchurch Terrace, De Beauvoir Town
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1842
- Bishop’s Transcripts: None
Nonconformists include:
Adjacent Parishes
- Hoxton Christ Church
- Haggerston St Mary
- Islington St Matthew
- Ball’s Pond
- West Hackney
Parish History
Until 1820 the area now covered by De Beauvoir Town was open country with a few grand houses. In 1821, stimulated by the opening of the Regent’s Canal the previous year, developer and brickmaker William Rhodes (1774-1843), a grandfather of Cecil Rhodes, secured a lease for 150 acres of land from Peter de Beauvoir. Rhodes planned to build residences for the upper classes set on wide streets in a grid pattern, with four squares on diagonal streets intersecting at an octagon. However, work stopped in 1823 when Rhodes was found to have obtained his lease unfairly and after a court case spanning over 20 years the land reverted to the de Beauvoir family in 1834.
The delay in the building had meant that Rhodes’ clientele had since moved on to the new suburbs of the West End. The scheme was scaled down and of the planned squares only the southeastern was built, as De Beauvoir Square, although the diagonals partly survived in Enfield Road, Stamford Road and Ardleigh Road. Occupied in the 1840s by the newly emerging middle classes, the estate was almost wholly residential except around Kingsland Basin and the south-west corner where a factory was leased from 1823.
De Beauvoir Town: South side of De Beauvoir Square. Dr Neil Clifton / De Beauvoir Town: South side of De Beauvoir Square / CC BY-SA 2.0
Boundaries
Its boundaries are defined by its highly geometric streets and an early 19th century canal. They are: Kingsland Road to the east, Regents Canal to the south, Southgate Road to the west and Balls Pond Road to the north; the middle of the last two roads marks the border of the London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington. Direct neighbours are Canonbury, Dalston and Shoreditch (the latter’s Hoxton and Haggerston areas).
Parish Records
Middlesex
England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988
England, Middlesex, Westminster, Parish Registers, 1538-1912
England, Middlesex, Westminster, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 Browse Images
Middlesex Military Service Appeal Tribunal 1916-1918
Records for England
Births and Baptism Records
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
Great Britain, Births and Baptisms, 1571-1977
England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
Marriage Records
Great Britain Marriages, 1797-1988
England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
Death Records
England Death Records, 1998-2015
England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991
Great Britain Deaths and Burials, 1778-1988
England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957
England and Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1640-1660
Non-Conformist Records
England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977
Census
England and Wales Census, 1841
England and Wales Census, 1851
England and Wales Census, 1861
England and Wales Census, 1871
England and Wales Census, 1881
England and Wales Census, 1891
England and Wales Census, 1901
England and Wales Census, 1911
Occupations
United Kingdom, Merchant Navy Seamen Records, 1835-1941
War and Conflict
Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935
United Kingdom, Chelsea Pensioners’ Service Records, 1760-1913
United Kingdom, Royal Hospital Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners 1760-1887 (WO 122)
United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933
United Kingdom, Militia Service Records, 1806-1915
United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920
United Kingdom, World War I Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Records, 1917-1920
Newspaper Archives
British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices
British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries
Administration
- County: Middlesex
- Civil Registration District: Hackney
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (London Division)
- Diocese: London
- Rural Deanery: Not created until 1858
- Poor Law Union: Hackney
- Hundred: Ossulstone (Tower Division)
- Province: Canterbury
